Archive for February, 2009

Northern Ireland health service restructured: Public Finance

 
The revamped structure of health and social services delivery has been revealed by Northern Ireland health minister Michael McGimpsey.
 
A new Health and Social Care Board will replace four regional health and social services boards, with headquarters in Belfast. A Public Health Agency will take over the work of the Health Promotion Agency, with an [...]

Questions of cash: ‘We were stranded. Why won’t Flybe refund our costs?’: The Independent

 
Q. Last August, we went on holiday to Sark, flying to Guernsey with Flybe. Severe weather conditions caused our ferry from Sark to Guernsey to be cancelled, making us miss our return flight to Manchester. We were insured through Flybe, and we told the airline in the morning that our family of five could not [...]

Buyer interest stokes property market: Primelocation

There are signs of increased buyer interest in the still depressed housing market. But this is yet to translate into a house price ‘bounce’.
The latest optimistic signs come from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). There was a 16% increase in new buyer enquiries in January compared to December, reports RICS. It says that [...]

Easing the property pain: Accounting & Business

 
No one can doubt that the UK property sector is in crisis. For all the talk of the problems in the manufacturing and retail sectors, their discomfort is mild compared to that felt by property developers. Some retailers are suffering a 7% fall in turnover and car sales are down 11% - but housing transactions [...]

Accountancy news February: Accounting & Business

 
AB February 2009
 
UK news
 
Brand briefs MPs on audits
 
ACCA chief executive Helen Brand was due to give evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on the role of audit in the banking crisis as AB went to press. Reviewing the role of auditors in the banking crisis headed the committee’s list of matters it [...]

Profile: Mark Millar: Accounting & Business

 
Mark Millar, FCCA, chief executive, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust
 
Q. You led the turnaround of Hinchingbrooke trust, overcoming its financial deficit. How big a challenge was it to balance the budget?
A. The underlying financial position was never as bad as it appeared. Some mistakes in business decisions were costly and a small district general hospital [...]

Questions of cash: ‘Can I still claim for my Buy & Fly! miles?’: The Independent

 
Q. I took out a Morgan Stanley credit card specifically because of its travel reward programme Buy & Fly! I accumulated enough miles for a return trip to the United States. But suddenly Buy & Fly! no longer existed and I was left with nothing. Barclaycard then wrote, saying it had taken over the Buy [...]

Standards change ‘could kill final salary pension schemes’: Accounting & Business

 
Requiring companies to show pension scheme losses in their profit and loss accounts would deal a potentially fatal blow to final salary pension schemes, says a leading firm of pension consultants. Aon Consulting was responding to proposals contained in the International Accounting Standard Board’s latest IFRS Update.
 
In the Update, published at the end of January, [...]

Almost giving it away: Primelocation

The scale of the recession has been dramatically illustrated by the decision of the Bank of England to cut its base rate to a mere 1%.
For full story go to http://www.primelocation.com/news/almost-giving-it-away-bank-cuts-rate-to-1/

House prices ‘to fall further’: Primelocation

House prices could fall by a quarter from current values if predictions from the Centre for Economics and Business Research prove correct. Respected analysts CEBR expect prices to fall 32% from their 2007 levels by the first quarter of next year - providing the Government’s rescue schemes for the banks work. If they fail, house [...]